Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Medium

PT118 S2 P4 Q21 Explanation

Canadian Aboriginal Rights

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocal PurposeLaw

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Passage

The following passage was written in the

The struggle to obtain legal recognition of aboriginal rights is a difficult one, and even if a right is written into the law there is no guarantee that the future will not bring changes to the law that undermine the right. For this reason, the federal government of Canada in 1982 extended of aboriginal rights, despite the continued efforts of aboriginal peoples to raise issues concerning their rights.

Aboriginal rights in Canada are defined by the constitution as aboriginal peoples’ rights to ownership of land and its resources, the inherent right of aboriginal societies to self-government, and the right to legal recognition of indigenous customs. But difficulties arise in applying these broadly conceived rights. For example, while it might appear aboriginal societies, which often relied on oral tradition rather than written records, to support their claims.

Furthermore, even if aboriginal peoples are successful in convincing the courts that specific rights should be recognized, it is frequently difficult to determine exactly what these rights amount to. Consider aboriginal land claims. Even when aboriginal ownership of specific lands is fully established, there remains the problem of interpreting the meaning of Canada, which will be, one hopes, more insistent upon a satisfactory application of the constitutional reforms.

What this question is testing

Local Purpose

Your task

Identify why the author included the referenced detail at that point in the passage — its function, not its content.

Common trap

Answers that merely repeat or summarize the topic of the detail instead of describing the role it plays.

Winning move

Ask what job the detail does for the paragraph, then for the passage's broader point.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
21.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the author’s main purpose in this line

Answer choices

  1. Too Strong: rarely conform3% picked this

    to demonstrate that the decisions of the provincial courts rarely conform to the goals of

    The author's discussion is limited to talking about the difficult role the provincial courts play at this stage of the new constitutional reforms. She is never arguing that provincial courts rarely conform to the goals of constitutional reforms.

  2. Correct78% picked this

    to locate the source of a systemic problem in protecting aboriginal

    Why this is right

    This is appealing since it's saying, "To describe the Problem". The first paragraph covers the underlying reason why constitutional reforms were enacted and then leads into the ongoing problem with protecting aboriginal rights, by explaining how the provincial courts have a huge burden in interpreting those rights, leading to uneven recognition and establishment of aboriginal rights. The systemic problem is that the constitution, which governs the entire country, as language that is supposed to establish aboriginal rights, but because the language is very general and hard to interpret, provincial court rulings are creating a lot of difficulties for aboriginal rights.

    Skill tested: Local Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  3. Wrong Problem15% picked this

    to identify the specific source of problems in enacting constitutional reforms

    This is tempting because it seems to be saying, "to describe the Problem", but this is saying that the problem is involved in enacting constitutional reforms. However, the constitutional reforms were already enacted in 1982. The passage isn't discussing a problem with enacting reforms. It's describing the problem that has followed the enactment of reforms.

  4. Wrong Role1% picked this

    to describe one aspect of the process by which constitutional reforms are

    This sounds too neutral and factual and doesn't connect to the Big Picture. We want to hear that the first paragraph establishes the Problem that the rest of the passage will unpack. That was the author's primary goal in the first paragraph, not just to describe one aspect of the enactment process.

  5. Contradicted4% picked this

    to criticize the use of general language in the

    The author isn't mad at the general language in the constitution. She refers to it as "necessarily general constitutional language". She understands that when statues or constitutions are written, the language needs to be left general; then courts can refine the exact meaning through the hearing of individual cases.

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